Lawnmowers of the foregoing type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,972,160 to Boswell, and 4,167,093 to Pfeiffer et al. The wheel height adjusting mechanism of such lawnmowers includes a crank arm mounting each wheel, and means coupling the crank arms for conjoint movement. Spring means is provided biasing the mechanism towards a maximum cutting height position.
In Boswell a lever is secured to one of the crank arms, to permit the rotation of the crank by manual pressure; detents are provided to lock the lever in any selected position.
In Pfeiffer et al, a lever is provided to selectively engage or disengage a front to rear link forming part of the height adjusting mechanism.
In lawnmowers particularly of the rotary blade type it is desirable to provide a safety flap positioned adjacent the rear of the lawnmower to protect the operators feet in the event that debris is forcefully ejected from the cutting chamber. Where the flap is rigidly secured to the housing, it will be less effective where the housing is raised to provide maximum cutting height. This problem is overcome by hinging the flaps to the housing, but this causes the flaps to drag over the ground surface.
It is an object of this invention to provide improvements to single control wheel height adjusting mechanisms.
It is another object of this invention to provide a flap height compensating arrangement for automatically adjusting the flap height as the wheel height is altered, to provide a constant flap height.